Homing

Latest Episodes:

Luke Edward hall: the artist and designer pulls back the curtain to reveal his colourful life story Jun 07, 2024

Show notes

Luke has kindly invited us to his house in the Cotswolds, which he shares with his husband, Duncan Campbell, and a pair of enthusiastic whippets.

I was intrigued to learn that this modern-day dandy comes from a bog-standard commuter town, and like many of the people I talk to on this podcast, his creative impulses offered a route out of mediocrity.

He tells me his very personal backstory of being estranged from his father at a young age, and what it was like to come out as gay to his family.

We talk about his witty, whimsical interpretation of the English Country House Style, why he believes you should invest yourself financially and emotionally in a rental, and why he chose to paint his London flat in ‘Pepto-Bismol pink’ before getting rid of it a few days later.

This episode was recorded in person at Luke’s cottage in the Cotswolds.

For more:

Check out the work of Luke Edward Hall

See images of the home he shares with Duncan Campbell over on our sister website, Inigo

Visit The Modern House website

Follow Matt Gibberd on Instagram

Follow The Modern House Instagram

Watch our Homing In films on YouTube

Producer: Hannah Phillips

Editing: Oscar Crawford

Graphic Design: Tom Young and Ben Tucker

Music: Father

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

James Lohan: the co-founder of Mr & Mrs Smith on how his first experience of home shaped an obsession with boutique hotels May 24, 2024

Show notes

This is the first time we’ve recorded an episode in a hotel suite, and that’s because today’s guest knows more about opening doors to glamorous guesthouses than anyone else.

James Lohan co-founded the travel company Mr & Mrs Smith with his wife Tamara back in 2003, and since then he’s visited nearly 4,000 hotels in the name of research.

James is a gregarious character with some brilliant tales to tell.We discuss his earliest experiences as an entrepreneur, from selling cheese toasties at school, to setting up a mobile disco called Your Mother Wouldn’t Like It.

He tells me about his refurbishment of a Dutch barge on the Thames – complete with flock wallpaper and a freestanding bath – and what he’s learned from hotels that we might apply to our homes.

This episode was recorded in person at The Nomad Hotel, London.

For more:

Check out Mr & Mrs Smith

Visit The Modern House website

Follow Matt Gibberd on Instagram

Follow The Modern House Instagram

Watch our Homing In films on YouTube

Producer: Hannah Phillips

Editing and mixing: Oscar Crawford

Music: Father

Graphic Design: Tom Young and Ben Tucker

This episode was sponsored by Vitsoe.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Claudia Donaldson: the pioneering editor and creative director on creating a sanctuary at home – and the luxury of pink loo roll Apr 26, 2024

Show notes

During her tenure at Nowness, Claudia commissioned the well-known ‘In Residence’ series, which took us inside the homes of the biggest names in design and architecture. Today, I’m meeting Claudia in her beautiful London home to give her a taste of her own journalistic medicine …

She tells me about what it was like to grow up in an English prototype of the American dream, and talks fondly about her ‘impossibly glamorous’ grandparents’ house, which had shagpile carpet, pink loo roll and a telephone next to the sunken bath.

We discuss why she prefers to define space with furniture rather than architecture, what happened when she broke her hip and couldn’t get down the stairs, why a home is never truly finished, and the power of procrastination.

This episode was recorded at Claudia's home in north west London.

For more:

Visit The Modern House website for images of some the spaces discussed in this episode

Check out Cloakroom

Follow Matt Gibberd on Instagram

Follow The Modern House Instagram

Watch our Homing In films on YouTube

Producer: Hannah Phillips

Editing and mixing: Oscar Crawford

Graphic Design: Tom Young

Music: Father

This episode was sponsored by Vitsoe.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Philippe Malouin: the experimental designer on creating with integrity – and the art of upcycling Apr 11, 2024

Show notes

Philippe designs everything from furniture to lighting, combining modern geometry with a sense of humour and materials that are built to last. I first met him many years ago, when he was doing some work with my wife, Faye Toogood. We’d turned our bedroom into a makeshift design studio, and Philippe and a few others would come round to make maquettes and geek out about ergonomics.

Nowadays, he’s a burly, bearded bear of a man with an extra 20kg of muscle, but his wit and warmth are the same as I remember. He tells me about what it was like to grow up beside a lake in Canada. From the age of seven, he would take himself off in his boat for the whole day, catching fish and swimming off the islands.

This independent, practical spirit has continued into adult life. He largely works on his own, because that’s how he likes it. His studio in Hackney, where we met to record this conversation, is the epicentre of his creative output – a place where he can build something, obsess over which type of screw he’s going to use, or just sit and daydream.

He tells me what it’s like to create a home from stuff that others have thrown away, how he saved up to buy his favourite sofa and kept it wrapped in plastic for two years, and why space is the ultimate luxury.

This episode was recorded in person, at Philippe Malouin’s studio in East London.

For more:

Visit The Modern House website to see images of the spaces discussed in this episode

Check out Philippe Malouin’s latest work

Follow Matt Gibberd on Instagram

Follow The Modern House Instagram

Watch our Homing In films on YouTube

Producer: Hannah Phillips

Editing: Oscar Crawford

Graphic Design: Tom Young

Music: Father

This episode is sponsored by Vitsoe.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Sumayya Vally: the South African architect on how growing up in a township defined her sense of place Mar 28, 2024

Show notes

Today I’m talking to the wonderful Sumayya Vally, founder of the architecture and research practice Counterspace. When in 2020 Sumayya designed the Serpentine pavilion, she joined the ranks of luminaries including Zaha Hadid, Peter Zumthor and Frank Gehry. In 2021, Time Magazine named her one of the ‘100 Leaders of the Future’ and, more recently, she was artistic director of the inaugural Islamic Arts Biennale in Saudi Arabia.

What really shines through in this conversation is Sumayya’s interest in the notion of home as it relates to place. She was born in an Indian township in Pretoria, just after Nelson Mandela was released from prison, and she cites the city of Johannesburg as her biggest inspiration. When she arrived in London, she became interested in the gathering spaces where settlers from other countries and communities have established themselves: churches, synagogues, marketplaces, female community centres, black-music venues and so on. ‘Home is not a physical place,’ she says. ‘It’s a sensibility and a feeling.’

The name ‘Sumayya’ means ‘to rise to the occasion’, and she tells me how she’s an outlier in her family and how her parents made sacrifices to provide her with an education. Very occasionally in life, you meet someone who has an inner light that seems to shine more brightly than other people’s. For me, Sumayya has that. She’s incredibly composed, articulate and wise beyond her years and I’m full of admiration for the work she’s doing to bring disparate cultures together.

This episode was recorded in person in London.

For more:

Visit The Modern House website to see images of the spaces discussed in this episode.

Check out Counterspace.

Follow Matt Gibberd on Instagram

Follow The Modern House Instagram

Watch our Homing In films on YouTube

Producer: Hannah Phillips

Editing: Oscar Crawford

Graphic Design: Tom Young

Music: Father

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Tim Little: the owner of Grenson footwear on his journey from Adidas ad man to sole trader Mar 15, 2024

Show notes

At the time of recording, Tim was knee-deep in building works at home, so I polished up my Chelsea boots for a visit to his London studio.

As always, I asked him to describe his life story through the lens of the homes he’s lived in over the years. It was particularly interesting to find out more about his current home, which he bought after seeing it on our website and falling instantly in love. It’s a mid-century masterpiece set in splendid isolation near Rye, in East Sussex. A celebration of craftsmanship comes through in everything that Tim is about.

His father was a textile manufacturer, and he’s inherited a fascination with how things are made and the excitement of seeing something take shape on the factory floor. He tells me about his background in advertising, when he was given the most thrilling brief of all time: ‘Make Adidas cool again’. Having been given the keys to one of the world’s most established brands, he was inspired to start his eponymous footwear company and ultimately take over Grenson.

Tim is a lovely guy – very humble and grounded – and I really enjoyed getting to know him through the course of this conversation.

This episode was recorded in person at the Grenson Studio in Chelsea.

For more:

Visit The Modern House website to see images of the spaces discussed in this episode.

Check out Grenson.

Follow Matt Gibberd on Instagram

Follow The Modern House Instagram

Watch our Homing In films on YouTube

Production: Hannah Phillips

Editing: Oscar Crawford

Graphic Design: Tom Young

Music: Father

This episode was sponsored by Vitsoe.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Jeremy Lee: the much-loved chef who grew up in a wedge of cheddar Mar 01, 2024

Show notes

I first became aware of Jeremy’s food when he was head chef of Terence Conran’s Blueprint Café, which was above the old Design Museum in Shad Thames. Nowadays, of course, he’s in charge of the kitchen at the revered Quo Vadis in Soho.

No one seems to have a bad word to say about Jeremy, and Jay Rayner describes him as ‘one of those rare phenomena in the London food world: a chap everyone agrees is a good thing.

His cookbook is simply called Cooking, which sums up his warm-hearted and simple approach to food. I was fascinated to find out more about Jeremy’s life via the homes he’s lived in, from the modern house his parents built, which was shaped like a wedge of cheese, to the flat in a converted factory where we recorded this episode.

It turns out that his approach to interiors is as artful as his presentation of food – as if each element has been dolloped off a spoon and landed in exactly the right place.

This episode was recorded at Jeremy Lee’s east London home.

For more:

Visit The Modern House website to see images of the spaces discussed in this episode

Watch Homing In, the film series.

Check out Jeremy’s cookbook, Cooking

Follow Matt Gibberd on Instagram

Follow The Modern House Instagram

Producer: Hannah Phillips

Editing: Oscar Crawford

Graphic Design: Tom Young

Music: Father

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Akram Khan: the poignant story of a man who found his voice through dance Jan 19, 2024

Show notes

Akram’s rich career includes performing at the opening ceremony of the London Olympics, collaborating with artists Anish Kapoor and Antony Gormley, and choreographing tours and videos for the likes of Kylie Minogue and Florence + the Machine. He was awarded an MBE for services to dance in 2005.

He kindly invited us to his home last summer and we recorded this conversation in a shady spot in the garden. Akram is of Bangladeshi descent and he grew up above his parents’ restaurant in south-west London. He was bullied at school and harassed by the National Front outside of it, so he’s always had a conflicted view of his community. As a child, he was introverted to the point of being mute, and movement quickly became his primary form of expression. He tells me how he danced so enthusiastically at home that the lights in the restaurant below would start shaking, putting the customers off their food. The word ‘home’ has come to mean many things for Akram: it’s the small studio in the garden where he practises dance for four hours every morning, it’s the stage on which he performs, and it’s also his own body.

As is the case for so many true artists, there’s a lot of conflicting emotion inside him. He talks particularly poignantly about his relationship with his late father, who always struggled to demonstrate his love. Akram’s story has really stayed with me. Being able to talk to people on this podcast is a great privilege, and conversations like this one really remind me of that.

For more:

Visit The Modern House website to see images of the spaces discussed in this episode

Check out the latest from the Akram Khan Company

Follow Matt Gibberd on Instagram

Follow The Modern House Instagram

Watch our Homing In films on YouTube

Producer: Hannah Phillips

Editing and mixing: Oscar Crawford

Graphic Design: Tom Young

Music: Father

This episode was sponsored by Vitsoe

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Roksanda Ilinčić: the fashion designer’s colourful journey through Belgrade, Britain and Brazil Jan 04, 2024

Show notes

I first met Roksanda in 2006. We were selling her flat in King’s Cross, which was unlike anything I’d seen before: a brooding space with cast-concrete worktops, a black resin floor and mirrored lightwells. It had a subterranean lap-pool that was completely black, like a cave, where one could imagine Bruce Wayne practising his backstroke. Roksanda had recently shown her first collection at London Fashion Week and garments dangled enticingly from rails in her workspace. Some 18 years later, I’ve come to meet her in her studio in the East End to record this podcast. As before, her latest collection is on display, only this time the hanging rails have multiplied by a factor of a hundred. The colours are even more vibrant. Roksanda is no longer simply a name; it’s a brand with a global following.

I loved finding out more about Roksanda’s life story. She talks passionately about the importance of nature in her life, from the old quince trees in her grandparents’ garden to the inside-out living of her favourite Modernist houses in Brazil. She describes how the birth of her daughter was like a portal opening up, which gave her new confidence and a sense of perspective. She tells me about how she’s managed to bring architecture into fashion, and why she believes that clothes are there to provide shelter and protection in the same way that a home does.

Thank you so much for listening, as always, and I really hope you enjoy it!

This episode was recorded in person at Roksanda’s East London studio.

For more:

Visit our website to see images of the spaces discussed

Check out Roksanda’s latest collection

Check out The Lost House sales listing, over on The Modern House

Follow Matt Gibberd on Instagram

Follow The Modern House Instagram

Watch our Homing In films on YouTube

Producer: Hannah Phillips

Editing and mixing: Oscar Crawford

Graphic Design: Tom Young

Music: Father

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Rosh Mahtani: the Alighieri founder’s inspiring journey from school outcast to acclaimed entrepreneur Dec 01, 2023

Show notes

Rosh is founder of the brilliant jewellery company Alighieri. We discuss her life story through the prism of the homes she’s lived in, from humble beginnings in Zambia to the beautifully designed flat she now owns in Clerkenwell. When Rosh moved to London at the age of eight, she was the only person of colour in her school. She tells me how she’s managed to channel this feeling of alienation towards a personal mission of bringing people together, celebrating commonality rather than difference. We talk about the importance of ritual at home and why she likes living on her own. We also discuss her suspicion of the colour green, the joy of negative space and why she imagines herself living in the desert as an old lady. Hope you enjoy it!

This episode was recorded in person at Rosh's London studio.

For more:

Visit Alighieri

See images of Rosh's own home and Frey House over on The Modern House

Subscribe to The Modern House newsletter for weekly interiors inspiration

Find out more about Matt Gibberd’s latest book, A Modern Way To Live

Follow Matt Gibberd on Instagram

Follow The Modern House Instagram

Watch our Homing In films on YouTube

Production: Hannah Phillips

Editing and mixing: Oscar Crawford

Graphic Design: Tom Young